In 2002, the company was renamed WWE. Following the introduction of the WWE brand extension, where wrestlers and championships became exclusive to a WWE brand, the World Tag Team Championship became exclusive to the Raw brand, while a second WWE Tag Team Championship was established for the SmackDown brand. Both titles were unified in 2009 into the "Unified WWE Tag Team Championship", but remained independently active until the World Tag Team Championship was decommissioned in 2010 in favor of continuing the newer championship.

The WWWF then established their own original world tag team championship, the "WWWF World Tag Team Championship" in 1971. Following the title's introduction, Luke Graham and Tarzan Tyler became the inaugural champions on June 3. In 1979, the title became known as the "WWF Tag Team Championship" when the promotion was renamed to World Wrestling Federation (WWF). It was subsequently renamed to "WWF World Tag Team Championship" in 1983, but was often referred to as the "WWF Tag Team Championship" for short.[3]

Three-time champions Demolition (Smash and Ax); their first reign is the longest reign in the title's history at 478 days

After the WWF/WWE name change in 2002, the championship was subsequently renamed to "WWE Tag Team Championship". During the initial WWE brand extension, the WWE Tag Team Championship was assigned to the SmackDown! brand, but after Raw's The Un-Americans (Christian and Lance Storm) defeated SmackDown!'s Billy and Chuck for the championship, the title moved to the Raw brand, leaving SmackDown! without a tag team title. As a result, then-SmackDown! General ManagerStephanie McMahon commissioned a new tag team title, also called the WWE Tag Team Championship, to be the exclusive tag team titles for the SmackDown! brand. With the introduction of the World Heavyweight Championship on the Raw brand after the WWE Championship became exclusive to SmackDown!, the WWE Tag Team Championship on Raw was renamed to "World Tag Team Championship". This was done so that the names of both tag team titles would mirror the names of the top championships on their respective brands. When the WWE Championship and World Heavyweight Championship switched brands during the 2005 WWE draft lottery, however, neither of the tag team titles were renamed.

In late 2008 through early 2009, then-WWE Tag Team Champions The Colóns (Carlito and Primo) engaged in rivalry with then-World Tag Team Champions John Morrison and The Miz, with the two teams exchanging victories in non-title matches and retaining their respective titles against each other.[4][5] On the March 17 episode of ECW on Syfy, it was announced that at WrestleMania XXV, both teams would defend their titles against each other and the winning team would hold both titles.[6] The Colóns defeated Morrison and Miz, and thus unified the titles into the "Unified WWE Tag Team Championship", although both championships remained independently active.[7]

As the Unified WWE Tag Team Championship, the champions could appear and defend the titles on any WWE brand, regardless of the brand that the holders belonged to.[8] On August 16, 2010, the World Tag Team Championship was decommissioned in favor of continuing the lineage of the WWE Tag Team Championship (which dropped the "unified" moniker), following Bret Hart's presentation of new championship belts to then and final World Tag Team Champions, The Hart Dynasty (David Hart Smith and Tyson Kidd).[9]

Brand designation

Following the events of the WWE brand extension, an annual WWE draft was established, in which select members of the WWE roster were reassigned to a different brand.[10] After the World Tag Team Championship was unified with the WWE Tag Team Championship as the Unified WWE Tag Team Championship, the champions could appear and defend the titles on any WWE brand.[11][12]

John Morrison and The Miz won the championship as ECW superstars, bringing the titles to ECW, however, they also appeared on Raw due to a talent exchange agreement between the two brands

April 5, 2009

At WrestleMania XXV, The Colóns unified the World Tag Team Championship and WWE Tag Team Championship as the Unified WWE Tag Team Championship. Both titles remained active and were defended on any brand

August 16, 2010

The World Tag Team Championship was decommissioned in favor of continuing the lineage of the WWE Tag Team Championship, which dropped the "unified" moniker

The Dudley Boyz held the record for most reigns as a team with eight. Edge held the record for overall reigns as an individual with twelve, seven of which were with Christian. He also won the titles with Hulk Hogan, Chris Benoit, Randy Orton, and Chris Jericho (after the titles were unified).

1.
WWE
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Capitol Wrestling Corporation Ltd. was an American professional wrestling promotion and the sanctioning body for the World Wide Wrestling Federation and later World Wrestling Federation. Founded by Jess McMahon and Toots Mondt in 1953, Capitol Wrestling Corporation is the precursor to todays WWE, run by Jess grandson, Jess McMahon was a successful boxing promoter who began working with Tex Rickard in 1926. With the help of Rickard, he began promoting boxing at the third Madison Square Garden, a few years prior, professional wrestler Toots Mondt had created a new challenge of professional wrestling that he called “Slam Bang Western Style Wrestling”. He convinced wrestler Ed Lewis and his manager Billy Sandow to implement this new solution, after much success, a disagreement over power caused the trio to dissolve and, with it, their promotion. Mondt later formed partnerships with other promoters, including Jack Curley in New York City. Mondt eventually took over the New York wrestling scene, due to the fact Curley was dying, with the aid of several bookers, together, McMahon and Mondt created the Capitol Wrestling Corporation Ltd. which later joined the National Wrestling Alliance in 1953. In November 1954, Jess McMahon died and Ray Fabiani, one of Mondts associates, both men left the company in protest following the incident and formed the WWWF in the process, awarding Rogers the new WWWF World Heavyweight Championship in April of that year. He lost the championship to Bruno Sammartino a month later on May 17,1963, after gaining a television program deal and turning preliminary wrestler Lou Albano as a manager for Sammartinos heel opponents, the WWWF was doing sell out business by 1970. Mondt left the company in the late 1960s and although the WWWF had withdrawn from the NWA, Vince McMahon, at the annual meeting of the NWA in 1983, the McMahons and WWF employee Jim Barnett all withdrew from the organization. By March 1979, for marketing purposes, the World Wide Wrestling Federation was renamed the World Wrestling Federation and that same year, Vincent J. McMahons son, Vincent K. McMahon, founded Titan Sports, Inc. incorporated on February 21,1980, originally in Massachusetts. In 1982, Titan Sports Inc. acquired Capitols operations, effectively relocating its headquarters to Greenwich, in an attempt to make the WWF the premier wrestling promotion in the world, McMahon began an expansion that fundamentally changed the industry. In the end, the elder McMahon would never live to see his company grow from a promotion to what is now a worldwide organization. He died from cancer at 69 years old on May 24,1984. By 1985, Titan moved to Stamford, Connecticut then establishing a new entity in 1987 in Delaware which later merged with the old company in 1988. Titan later changed its name to World Wrestling Federation Entertainment, Inc. before finally becoming World Wrestling Entertainment, list of independent wrestling promotions in the United States

2.
Luke Graham (wrestler)
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James Grady Johnson was an American professional wrestler, better known by his ring name, Crazy Luke Graham. As Luke Graham, Johnson was a member of the Graham family and he began his career as the storyline brother of Dr. Jerry Graham after fellow wrestler Frankie Cain suggested they resembled each other. They began wrestling together in 1963 in Stampede Wrestling, later that summer, Johnson wrestled a series of matches against Chief Big Heart. He wrestled in the World Wide Wrestling Federation with Jerry Graham beginning in 1964 and it was during this time that he became known as Crazy Luke Graham. Graham left the Northeast territory after the loss and returned to the WWWF as a wrestler from 1966-1969, feuding with Miguel Perez, Antonio Pugliese. Graham enjoyed most of his success for the Los Angeles territory in the mid to late 1960s and he held the WWA World Title for that office in 1965. He dropped the belt to Pedro Morales, in the late 1960s, he was a mid card performer for Verne Gagnes American Wrestling Association out of Minneapolis. After leaving the AWA, Luke returned to WWWF and had a run with Tarzan Tyler as the first WWWF Tag Team Champions in 1971. One story was that the team allegedly defeated Dick the Bruiser and The Sheik for the belts, however, the other story is that they won it from Bepo and Geeto Mongol. Once champions, the team held the belts for six months while feuding with Chief Jay Strongbow, Gorilla Monsoon, Luke again left WWWF in 1972. He fought in Florida as El Lobo in 1970, in 1974, he was the United States Champion in the Pacific Northeast and that same year he won the NWA Georgia State Wrestling Title in a tournament on April 20. In 1978, Graham return to the WWWF this being managed by The Grand Wizard and he had epic feuds with Andre the Giant, Dino Bravo, Haystacks Calhoun, Ivan Putski and WWWF champion Bob Backlund. He even teamed with his brother Superstar Billy Graham and he retired in the late 1980s. Other Family members include, Tommy T. G, Graham, Troy The Dream Machine/Warrior Graham, Eddie Grahams son Mike Graham, and Luke Grahams son, Crazy Luke Graham, Jr. and Nephew, Gerry Chubby Graham. Grady Johnsons Luke Graham persona was known for his craziness, whenever someone referred to Johnson as Crazy Luke Graham, as part of his gimmick, he would claim to be sane and cover his ears. He had bleached hair and goatee, one of his signature moves was to stab people with his taped thumb, called The Golden Spike. Most all Graham Family members had the trademark bleach blonde head, all the members of the Graham Family are reported to have retired or died. Johnson died, aged 66, from heart failure on June 23,2006

3.
Tarzan Tyler
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Camille Tourville was a Canadian professional wrestler and manager, better known by his ring name, Tarzan Tyler. He was one-half of the first WWWF World Tag Team Champions, Tarzan Tyler began competing in the United States during the 1960s after having spent nearly 10 years wrestling in Canada. Tyler competed for World Championships against such stars as Verne Gagne, Lou Thesz, and Dory Funk, Jr. His greatest success came as a tag team competitor, as he and Crazy Luke Graham defeated the team of Dick the Bruiser, Tyler also challenged Bruno Sammartino for the WWWF Championship during his tenure with the promotion. In 1980 he fought Angelo Mosca Sr. for the Canadian Heavyweight title in Toronto and he was a three-time heavyweight champion for Grand Prix Wrestling in Montreal in the 1970s

4.
The Hart Dynasty
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The Hart Dynasty was a professional wrestling stable that appeared in World Wrestling Entertainment. The unit consisted of the tag team of Tyson Kidd and David Hart Smith, in 2014, Natalya began managing Kidd again. In 2007, World Wrestling Entertainment launched their new development territory, at FCWs debut show on June 26, Smith won a 21-man battle royal to become the promotions first Southern Heavyweight Champion. Plans to bring the stable to WWEs main roster were made, after being drafted to SmackDown, Smith returned to FCW — without debuting on SmackDown — and reformed the stable with Wilson. With Neidharts help they won the FCW Florida Tag Team Championship on October 30,2008, by defeating Joe Hennig and they held the championship until December 11, when they lost to Johnny Curtis and Tyler Reks. After losing the championship, they were again split up when Wilson was called up to the ECW brand with Natalya as his valet. In the 2009 WWE Supplemental Draft, Natalya and Smith were officially drafted to the ECW brand, Smith made his debut with the group by defeating Finlay the following week. The team had their first match together, alongside Jack Swagger, by defeating fellow Canadian Christian and they made their first appearance as just a tag team on the June 9 episode of ECW by defeating Christian and Swagger. On June 29, the trio were traded to the SmackDown brand and debuted as a team for the brand on the July 3 episode of SmackDown, when Kidd and Smith lost to Cryme Tyme. The Hart Dynasty made their debut at Bragging Rights in a 14-man tag team match in which their team was successful in winning. They also had their first match for the Unified WWE Tag Team Championship against D-Generation X in December, the following night on Raw, The Hart Dynasty defeated the Unified Tag Team Championship ShoMiz in a non-title match, after ShoMiz had insulted Hart. At Extreme Rules, they earned a shot at the Unified Tag Team Championship after defeating ShoMiz as part of a tag team gauntlet match, on the April 26 episode of Raw, The Hart Dynasty defeated ShoMiz to win the Unified Tag Team Championship. The following day, all three members were drafted to the Raw brand in the 2010 WWE Supplemental Draft. On May 10, Kidd defeated The Miz in a match which earned any member of The Hart Dynasty a match for The Mizs WWE United States Championship, the Miz was allowed to pick his opponent for the championship match, and he chose to face Bret Hart. At the Over the Limit pay-per-view, The Hart Dynasty defeated The Miz, on May 24,2010, Hart was named as the Raw General Manager and vacated the United States Championship as a result. On the same episode of Raw, The Hart Dynasty began a rivalry with a composed of Jimmy Uso and Jey Uso, the sons of Rikishi, and Tamina. This led to a non-title six-person mixed tag match at the Fatal 4-Way pay per view. The following night on Raw, Hart was fired as General Manager, on the August 16 episode of Raw, the World Tag Team Championship was retired, making the Hart Dynasty the final champions

5.
The Dudley Boyz
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The Dudley Boyz were a professional wrestling tag team, consisting of kayfabe half-brothers Bubba Ray Dudley and D-Von Dudley. The team would also be joined by various Dudley family members, notably Matthew Hyson and they are best known for their time in the World Wrestling Federation, later renamed World Wrestling Entertainment. The team wrestled as the Dudley Boyz in ECW and WWF/E, Hyson later signed with TNA and again sided with Team 3D as Brother Runt. Later in their TNA career, LoMonaco used the ring name Bully Ray while Hughes wrestled as Devon, after a brief feud with one another, Devon and Bully were reunited as part of the villainous faction Aces & Eights. They are the only tag team to hold the WWE, WWF/World, ECW, WCW, NWA, TNA, during their time as Aces & Eights, LoMonaco was TNA World Heavyweight Champion on two occasions, while Devon was Television Champion. On June 15,2014 at Slammiversary XII, Team 3D were selected as that years induction into the TNA Hall of Fame. WWE recognizes them as the most decorated tag team in history, with 18-time world tag team championship reigns. They are famously known for using tables in their matches, usually to drive their opponent through one with their 3D finishing move. On May 21,2007, Ray and Devon opened the Team 3D Academy of Professional Wrestling and Sports Entertainment at the X-Cel Fitness Gym in Kissimmee, Florida. The teaming of LoMonaco and Hughes was born from ECWs Dudley family, Hughes, as D-Von Dudley, debuted in ECW in 1996. All the members of the Dudley family chased for the ECW Tag Team Championship at that time, little Spike Dudley also debuted in 1996 and teamed with Buh Buh Ray against The Full Blooded Italians. Initially, D-Von was hostile toward his family, saying that true Dudleys were not comedians. Eventually, however, Buh Buh Ray and D-Von united and kicked all of the remaining Dudleys except for Big Dick Dudley and Sign Guy Dudley out of the family and they became the most successful members of the Dudley family as they dominated the tag team division of ECW. They won their first ECW Tag Team Championship from The Eliminators at Hostile City Showdown on March 15,1997 and this win resulted in a rivalry with the Eliminators, who won the title back at ECWs first pay-per-view event Barely Legal. On June 20, the Dudleys won their second ECW Tag Team Championship from Kronus in a match due to Saturn being injured. The Dudley Boyz began their rivalry with The Gangstas, which began after the Dudleys defeated the Gangstas to retain the tag titles at Orgy of Violence on June 28. The Dudleys, however, lost the tag titles to the Gangstas in a steel cage match at Heat Wave on July 19,1997. In less than a month, the Dudleys defeated the Gangstas at Hardcore Heaven to win their third ECW Tag Team Championship

6.
Edge (wrestler)
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Adam Joseph Copeland is a Canadian actor and retired professional wrestler better known by his ring name Edge, currently signed to WWE. He is known for his tenure in the professional wrestling promotion WWE. Copeland was trained by professional wrestlers Sweet Daddy Siki and Ron Hutchison, throughout the 1990s, he wrestled in various U. S. independent promotions. During his time in these promotions, he competed in singles and tag team competition, in 1997, Copeland signed a developmental deal with the WWF and began competing for the company later that year, he made his televised debut the following June under the ring name Edge. In July 1999, he won the WWF Intercontinental Championship at a show in Toronto. He and Christian, billed as brothers and later childhood friends in WWF/WWE storylines, during this time, they gained notoriety in the tag team division, partly due to their participation in Tables, Ladders, and Chairs matches. He is WWEs 14th Triple Crown Champion and 3rd Grand Slam Champion and he headlined multiple pay-per-view events for WWE, including WrestleMania XXIV, and was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame by Christian in 2012. His wife Beth Phoenix joined the Hall of Fame in 2017, aside from professional wrestling, Copeland appeared in the fantasy film Highlander, Endgame and WWE Studios Bending the Rules. He has made guest appearances on shows such as Weakest Link, Mind of Mencia, Deal or No Deal, MADtv. He appeared on the SyFy series Haven as recurring character Dwight Hendrickson, Copeland was born in Orangeville, Ontario, the son of Judy Copeland, a single parent who worked two jobs to support her son. To this day, he has never met his father or seen a picture of him and he became interested in professional wrestling at a young age, his favorite wrestlers included Mr. Perfect, Randy Savage, Hulk Hogan, Ricky Steamboat, Shawn Michaels, and Bret Hart. A notable photo exists of Copeland attending Wrestlemania VI wearing a Hulk Rules T-shirt, when he was 17, he won an essay contest with his local gym, and his prize was free wrestling training with Sweet Daddy Siki and Ron Hutchison in Toronto. He put his wrestling aspirations aside to pay the bills. He held numerous jobs and then attended Humber College, where he graduated with a degree in radio broadcasting, during Copelands training, he trained one weekday and all weekend. The schools practice ring was a 12-by-14-foot boxing ring with a harder mat than that of a wrestling ring. The ceiling above it was low, with exposed pipes, preventing top-rope moves from being performed, Copeland later credited this environment with forcing him to drill and improve his technical mat-based wrestling. His classmates included Johnny Swinger, Joe E. Legend, throughout the 1990s, Copeland wrestled on the independent circuit in Ontario and the Great Lakes region of the United States under the ring name Sexton Hardcastle. He became a part of the tag team Sex and Violence with Joe E. Legend, in the mid-1990s, he wrestled as Adam Impact for Tony Condellos Winnipeg promotion

7.
Demolition (professional wrestling)
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Demolition is a professional wrestling tag team most prominent during the late 1980s and early 1990s in the World Wrestling Federation made up of Ax, Smash, and later Crush. In the WWF, Demolition were three-time WWF World Tag Team Champions and their first reign with the WWF World Tag Team Championship is the second longest reign with any tag team championship in WWE history and is the longest reign on record for that specific championship. Beginning in 2007, Ax and Smash reunited for several appearances at various independent shows, Randy Colley and Bill Eadie created the Demolition gimmick and worked for the World Wrestling Federation. They debuted as a tag team on the January 17,1987 edition of Superstars, alongside manager Luscious Johnny V, defeating the team of Salvatore Bellomo. The tag team resembled Lord Humungus of the 1981 film Mad Max 2, The Road Warrior, after only a few matches, Colley was replaced with Barry Darsow in a match aired on the February 14,1987 edition of Superstars. In an RF Video shoot interview with Eadie and Darsow, Eadie said that Colley was replaced because he was recognizable to the fans as the man who performed as Moondog Rex. The WWF pitched a few potential replacements to Eadie, but he thought fans would recognize the suggested replacements, however, Eadie felt that many WWF fans would not recognize Darsow, who had been working for Jim Crockett Promotions as Krusher Khruschev alongside Nikita Koloff. Darsow had left Crockett following a dispute in order to take over the role of Smash, on the March 14 edition of Saturday Nights Main Event, Demolition participated in a battle royal, won by Hercules Hernandez. Demolition became known for their style in the ring and the way that they dominated their matches. Their first feud was with the team of Ken Patera and Billy Jack Haynes, around that same period, Johnny Valiant sold their contracts to Mr. Fuji who became their manager. Demolition made their debut at Survivor Series in an elimination tag team match where 5 babyface teams faced 5 heel teams. Demolition was part of the group, They were disqualified for shoving down referee Dave Hebner during the match. At WrestleMania IV, Ax and Smash defeated Strike Force to win their first WWF World Tag Team Championship, Ax struck Martel in the back of the neck with Fujis cane while he had Smash in a Boston crab. Martel was knocked out and Smash covered him for the pin while Ax hid outside with the cane. As champions, they defeated a number of the top teams of the WWF, in the summer of 1988 The Powers of Pain entered the WWF and challenged them for the Tag Team Championship. During the elimination tag match at the 1988 Survivor Series, Mr. Fuji attacked Demolition. A double turn took place as Demolition turned face while the Powers of Pain turned heel, for their part, Demolition denounced their former manager as a parasite, labelling him Fuj the Stooge. Demolition defeated the Powers of Pain and Mr. Fuji in a tag team match at WrestleMania V to retain the WWF World Tag Team Championship when they caught Fuji in the Demolition Decapitation

8.
Edge and Christian
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Edge and Christian are a tag team made of real life best friends Edge and Christian. They are best known for their time in the World Wrestling Federation, initially, the two were portrayed as on-screen brothers, but the aspect was de-emphasized in the mid-2000s, and in 2010, the team was officially retconned as childhood friends. The team split up in 2001 but reunited briefly on the SmackDown brand in 2011, Edge, however, announced his retirement from professional wrestling due to neck injury on the April 11 episode of Monday Night Raw, which would ultimately end their final run together. In addition to their seven reigns as WWF Tag Team Champions they each won singles titles during their run as a tag team, Edge and Christian are also noteworthy for their participation in the first three Tables, Ladders, and Chairs matches. In 2012, WWE named them the greatest tag team in WWE history, the teams popularity propelled Edge and Christian to main event success, with both men becoming multiple-time world champions in their own right. Their tag team wrestled under several names, such as High Impact, Suicide Blondes, Revolution X, Hard Impact. They were part of a faction dubbed Thug LiFe in 1997, the stable consisted of Cage, Hardcastle, Joe E. Legend, Rhino Richards, Bloody Bill Skullion, Big Daddy Adams and Martin Kane. In 1998, Sexton and Christian began teaming up in independent promotions such as Insane Championship Wrestling, the duo won the ICW Streetfight Tag Team Championship twice and SSW Tag Team Championship once during their time in the independent circuit. On the June 22,1998 episode of Raw is War, Edge debuted in the World Wrestling Federation against Jose Estrada and he was a mysterious loner character, who would emerge from the crowd before his matches. Eventually, he started a feud with Gangrel, at In Your House, Breakdown, during a match pitting Edge against Owen Hart, an unknown person, looking similar to Edge, came out to the ring distracting him enough to allow Hart to get the win. It was later revealed that this person was Christian, Edges storyline brother, after some confrontations between the two gothic brothers, Edge was convinced to come home with Christian and Gangrel, and the three of them formed a stable known as The Brood. A small theory exists that Christianity may have had a hand in deciding Copeland and Resos WWF/E ring names and this is somewhat supported by the fact that both men had frequently worn cross necklaces on TV for some time since beginning their WWF careers. At In Your House, Rock Bottom, the Brood defeated The J. O. B, the Brood briefly joined The Undertakers Ministry of Darkness faction, but left after Christian was flogged and almost sacrificed for revealing Stephanie McMahons whereabouts to Ken Shamrock. Following a short feud with the Ministry, Gangrel turned on Edge and he refused and both he and Edge broke with Gangrel turning them into fan favorites. From there, the gothic storyline enjoyed limited success, beginning their eventual tag team feud with The Hardy Boyz, at this point, the duo had rehashed Edges pre-Brood gimmick as borderline gothic fan favorites most notable for a tendency to enter the ring through the audience. The tag team feud with the Hardy Boyz intensified as Gangrel became Matt and Jeffs new manager, combining to form The New Brood, Edge and Christian won the first two matches, putting the Hardyz in sudden jeopardy. The Hardyz went on to win the two matches, however, leading to a rubber match at No Mercy to determine which team would earn the services of Runnels. The rubber match would be a match, in which Gangrel tried to interfere

9.
Ric Flair
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Richard Morgan Fliehr, better known as Ric Flair, is an American professional wrestling manager and retired professional wrestler signed to WWE under its Legends program. Widely regarded as the greatest professional wrestler of all time, Flair has cultivated a legacy over a career that spans 40 years, Flair is noted for his tenures with the National Wrestling Alliance, World Championship Wrestling, the World Wrestling Federation, and Total Nonstop Action Wrestling. Since the mid-1970s, he has used the moniker the Nature Boy, PWI awarded Flair their Wrestler of the Year award a record six times, while Wrestling Observer Newsletter named Flair as the Wrestler of the Year on a record of nine occasions. According to Mick Foley, he had two stints as a booker in WCW, from 1989–1990 and again in 1994, Flair was the first titleholder of both the WCW World Heavyweight Championship and the WCW International World Heavyweight Championship. In being the inaugural WCW World Heavyweight Champion, he became the first WCWs Triple Crown Champion, having already held the United States Heavyweight. He then completed WWEs version of the Triple Crown when he won the Intercontinental Championship, after holding the WWF Championship. Richard Fliehr was born on February 25,1949 in Memphis, in the opening chapter of his autobiography To Be the Man, he notes that his birth name is given on different documents as Fred Phillips, son of Olive and Luther Phillips. He was adopted, at the time of his adoption, as reported in the chapter of his autobiography entitled Black Market Baby. Shortly afterward, the family settled in Edina, Minnesota, where the young Fliehr lived throughout his childhood, as a teen, Fliehr took a summer job as a lifeguard at a local pool in Minnesota. He received his first exposure to the business when he met the Vachon brothers. He dropped out of college without receiving his degree and he then worked as a bouncer at a nearby club, where he met Olympic weightlifter Ken Patera, who was preparing for a ring career at Verne Gagnes wrestling school. Patera introduced Flair to Verne Gagne, who agreed to him on as a member of his training class. Under the tutelage of Josh Klemme and Billy Robinson, Flair was friends with Ken Patera before entering wrestling, Patera had an association with Verne Gagne through his weightlifting career and with that relationship an opportunity arose for Flair to train with Verne Gagne as a professional wrestler. Flair attended Gagnes first wrestling camp with Greg Gagne, Jim Brunzell, Iron Sheik, the intensity of Gagnes training camp, which spawned several champions including Flair, caused Flair to nearly quit the camp until Gagne persuaded him to continue. On December 10,1972, He made his debut in Rice Lake, Wisconsin, Flair originally considered Rambling Ricky Rhodes, in tribute to Dusty Rhodes. Weighing nearly 300 pounds with brown hair, Flair scarcely resembled his future Nature Boy image. During his time in the American Wrestling Association, Flair had matches with Dusty Rhodes, André the Giant, Larry Hennig, Flair first competed in Japan in 1973 for International Wrestling Enterprise, due to a working agreement between AWA promoter Verne Gagne and the IWE. After Flair left the AWA for Jim Crockett Jr. s Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling in 1974, on April 27,1978, Flair challenged for the NWA United National Championship in a losing effort

10.
Owen Hart
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A member of the Hart wrestling family, he was born in Calgary, Alberta, the youngest of 12 children of Stampede Wrestling promoter and WWE Hall of Famer Stu Hart, and Helen Hart. He is considered by many of his peers to be one of the greatest professional wrestlers of all time, Owen was born on May 7,1965 in Calgary, Alberta into the Hart wrestling family and was the youngest child of Stu and Helen Hart. Hart grew up in a household with 11 siblings, Smith, Bruce, Keith, Wayne, Dean, Ellie, Georgia, Bret, Alison, Ross and he was of Greek descent through his maternal grandmother and Irish through his maternal grandfather. His father was mainly of Scots-Irish descent, but also had Scottish and English ancestry, Hart was a dual citizen of Canada and the United States since his mother Helen was born in New York. Hart first gained wrestling experience in the wrestling division at high school, through which he met his wife. Wrestling was not Harts first choice for a career, as Martha explained in her book Broken Harts, Owen is quoted as saying, in the WWEs Home Video Owen Hart of Gold that during his time in the University, he wrestled incognito as the original British Bulldog. Then, after he graduated from the University, he wrestled as Bronco Owen Hart at Royal Albert Hall in London and he remained with Stampede for the next couple of years while honing his skills. During 1986, Hart teamed with Ben Bassarab and won the Stampede Wrestling International Tag Team Championship, the success of the team and Harts in ring skills earned him Pro Wrestling Illustrateds Rookie of the Year Award in 1987. After he and Bassarab lost the tag title, he feuded with Johnny Smith. In 1987, Hart branched out to Japan where he wrestled for New Japan Pro Wrestling on several tours, in NJPW, he wrestled Keiichi Yamada, and later under the Jushin Liger gimmick. On May 27,1988, Hart defeated Hiroshi Hase for the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship and his reign would end nearly a month later, as he lost the title to Shiro Koshinaka on June 24,1988. Harts success in Japan and Stampedes working relationship with the World Wrestling Federation led to Hart signing with the company in the summer of 1988. Instead of promoting Owen as Bret Harts younger brother, the WWF decided to create a masked superhero type gimmick for him which played to his high-flying style, the Blazer was eliminated by Valentine, but his team went on to win the match. Shortly after WrestleMania, Hart left the WWF to tour the world both with and without the Blue Blazer gimmick and he also returned to Stampede, until it shut down in December 1989. In 1991, Hart lost the Blue Blazer mask in a mascara contra mascara match against Mexican wrestler El Canek, thus bidding farewell to the Blue Blazer gimmick. Hart debuted in World Championship Wrestlings self-titled TV show on March 16,1991, one of the bouts saw him team with Ricky Morton. Hart had been engaged in discussions with WCW but the deal was never struck, as Owen was not willing to move himself. Instead, he signed with the WWF for a second time, in the WWF the popular Hart Foundation, composed of his brother Bret and real-life brother-in-law Jim Neidhart, had split up, Bret set out on a singles career while Neidhart was used sparingly

11.
Yokozuna (wrestler)
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Rodney Agatupu Anoaʻi was an American professional wrestler who is best known for his time with the World Wrestling Federation where he wrestled under the ring name Yokozuna. Although the Yokozuna character was portrayed as a sumo wrestler. Though Yokozuna wrestled as a representative of Japan, in real life Anoaʻi was Samoan American and was billed as hailing from Polynesia. However, he was managed by the Japanese character Mr. Fuji, who would follow Anoaʻi to the ring with a bucket of salt. In the WWF, Anoaʻi was a two-time WWF World Heavyweight Champion and two-time WWF Tag Team Champion and he was the third fastest newcomer after Brock Lesnar and Sheamus to win the WWF Championship after his WWF debut. Anoaʻi was posthumously inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2012, Anoaʻis career in professional wrestling began as he grew up in a family full of wrestlers, the Anoaʻi family. His uncles were The Wild Samoans, Afa and Sika, who trained him from an age in the family business. Anoaʻi took on the name of the Great Kokina while wrestling overseas in Japan and he also spent some time in Mexico learning the craft and gaining the experience necessary to be a star in the sport. He made a one time appearance for Jim Crockett Promotions on August 12,1987 when he faced Ron Simmons at a house show and his first major exposure in the United States came in the American Wrestling Association as Kokina Maximus. Wrestling as a Samoan superstar, he was managed by Sheik Adnan El Kassey, in storyline, he was responsible for the breaking of Greg Gagnes leg and ending his career. In 1992, Anoaʻi was contacted by Vince McMahon of the World Wrestling Federation, on an August 17,1992 episode of Prime Time Wrestling, the Samoans made their debut. Commentator Gorilla Monsoon made mention of another, larger Samoan that they would soon be seeing in the WWF, anoai would make his initial debut as Kokina in an untelevised match on September 1,1992 at a WWF Superstars taping in Hershey, Pennsylvania. Wrestling as Kokina, he defeated Ron Neal and this would be the only time that Anoa wrestled under his former gimmick. Shortly after he was offered a new gimmick, Yokozuna, managed by Mr. Fuji, Yokozuna debuted on the October 31,1992 edition of Superstars and portrayed a sumo wrestler competing under the Japanese flag. He made his debut at Survivor Series, easily defeating the much smaller Virgil with his huge weight advantage. Yokozunas career soon took off, and he headed into 1993s Royal Rumble and he eliminated Randy Savage to win the Royal Rumble match, cementing his movement towards main event status. Yokozuna was a competitor in the first ever match in Monday Night Raw history, defeating the much smaller Koko B. Ware with his signature finisher, the Banzai Drop. Soon after, Yokozuna was challenged by American patriot Hacksaw Jim Duggan, afterwards, Duggan was suffering from internal bleeding

12.
Paul London and Brian Kendrick
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Paul London and Brian Kendrick were a professional wrestling tag team for World Wrestling Entertainment. They are former WWE Tag Team Champions and World Tag Team Champions. Their 2006-2007 reign as WWE Tag Team Champions was the longest in the history until their record was broken by The New Day on July 20,2016. They first began teaming together in 2003 as a part of WWE, when he returned in mid-2005, he and London reunited as a tag team. In May 2006 the duo won the WWE Tag Team Championship from MNM, it was Kendricks first title victory with the company, later in 2007, London and Kendrick were drafted from SmackDown to the Raw brand, where they briefly held the World Tag Team Championship. They have since competed together on the independent circuit on several occasions, the team never had an official team name, but were just referred to as the tag team of London and Kendrick. Prior to teaming together on World Wrestling Entertainment s SmackDown, brand, both Paul London and Brian Spanky Kendrick along with Daniel Bryan were students at Shawn Michaels Texas Wrestling Academy, under the tutelage of Rudy Boy Gonzalez. From there they went on to Ring of Honor, where they occasionally competed against each other and as a team. In late 2002, Kendrick was hired by WWE, and in July 2003 London joined the company as well, once in WWE together, and both on the SmackDown. Brand, London and Kendrick began teaming together and they became a mainstay on SmackDown. s sister show Velocity until Kendrick left the company in February 2004. Kendrick returned in mid-2005, using his name, and in September 2005 London. Upon reuniting the team competing in matching shorts and vests as well as wearing theatrical masks to the ring. Subsequently, they were elevated into the WWE Tag Team Championship picture. On the April 7,2006 episode of SmackDown, London and Kendrick once again faced MNM, this time picking up a win in a non-title match. Their first main competition for the titles came when K. C. James and Idol Stevens defeated London and Kendrick in a match, in early August. During the rivalry, WWE Diva Ashley Massaro began accompanying London and Kendrick to the ring, acting as a valet to the team while combating the actions of James and Stevens manager Michelle McCool. On October 14,2006 they became the longest reigning WWE Tag Team Champions of all time, the record stood until it was broken by The New Day in July 2016. A scheduled title match between the two teams at Armageddon was changed at the event to a ladder match, also involving The Hardys

13.
Professional wrestling
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Professional wrestling is a dramatized athletic performance that portrays a combat sport. Various forms of weaponry are sometimes used, the content – including match outcomes – is scripted and choreographed, and the combative actions and reactions are performed to appear violent without injuring the wrestlers. Before the 1980s, these facts were considered trade secrets, in the mid-90s, the presentation of scripted events as legitimate is known as kayfabe. Although the combative content is staged and communicated between the wrestlers, there are physical hazards involved - including permanent injury and death. While it has declined in Europe, in North America it has experienced several different periods of prominent cultural popularity during its century. The advent of television gave professional wrestling a new outlet, unlike in Europe, show wrestling has become especially prominent in Japan and in North America. In Brazil, there was a popular wrestling television program from the 1960s to the early 1980s called Telecatch. High-profile figures in the sport have become celebrities or cultural icons in their native or adopted home countries, although professional wrestling started out as petty acts in sideshows, traveling circuses and carnivals, today it is a billion-dollar industry. Revenue is drawn from live event ticket sales, network television broadcasts, pay-per-view broadcasts, personal appearances by performers, branded merchandise, pro wrestling was also instrumental in making pay-per-view a viable method of content delivery. Annual shows such as WrestleMania, SummerSlam, Royal Rumble, and formerly Bash at the Beach, Halloween Havoc, home video sales dominate the Billboard charts Recreational Sports DVD sales, with wrestling holding anywhere from 3 to 9 of the top 10 spots every week. Due to its persistent cultural presence and to its novelty within the performing arts, there have also been many fictional depictions of wrestling, the 2008 film The Wrestler received several Oscar nominations and began a career revival for star Mickey Rourke. Because actual events are often co-opted by writers for incorporation into storylines for the performers, special care must be taken when talking about people who perform under their own name. The actions of the character should be considered fictional events, wholly separate from the life of the performer and this is similar to other entertainers who perform with a persona that shares their own name. Some wrestlers will incorporate elements of their real-life personalities into their characters, even if they and those who participated felt that it was necessary that spectators should be kept in a constant and complete illusion of a real competition to keep audience interest. For decades, up until the mid-1980s, wrestlers lived their lives as though they were their characters. Wrestlers, bookers and promoters all rigorously enforced the illusion and very few were allowed into the society of professional wrestling to maintain suspension of disbelief. The practice of keeping the illusion, and the methods used to do so, came to be known as kayfabe within wrestling circles. An entire lexicon of slang jargon and euphemism developed to allow performers to communicate without outsiders knowledge of what was being said, occasionally a performer will deviate from the intended sequence of events

14.
Tag team
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Tag team wrestling is a type of professional wrestling in which matches are contested between teams of multiple wrestlers. A tag team may be made up of wrestlers who normally wrestle in singles competition, in most team matches, only one competitor per team is allowed in the ring at a time. This status as the active or legal wrestler may be transferred by physical contact, the team-based match has been a mainstay of professional wrestling since the mid twentieth century, and most promotions have sanctioned a championship division for tag teams. g. A couple tag-teaming in an argument with another person, in 1901 the first tag team match was held in the United States, in San Francisco. San Francisco promoters introduced tag team wrestling as a way of improving the sport’s entertainment value, while tag team wrestling is now almost traditional in American professional wrestling, the innovation didnt become especially popular outside San Francisco until the 1930s. The first World tag team championship was also crowned in San Francisco in the early 1950s, typically, a tag team championship is awarded to and defended by team of two. In kayfabe, this made it difficult for challengers to prepare for their title fights. This was a gimmick, and is still utilized by other wrestling companies. The stipulation has become known as the freebird rule. A common storyline is former tag team partners turning on each other and this can be used when one member is being called on to develop a new gimmick. The basic tag team match has two teams of two facing off against each other. All standard rules for singles wrestling apply to a team match, however, only one wrestler from each team, called the legal man is allowed in the ring at a time. All other members of the team wait outside the ropes in the teams specified corner, only an active/legal wrestler is allowed to score a fall or have a fall scored against him/her. But any wrestler, legal or outside, may face disqualification for himself or his team for violating rules, once a tag is made, the wrestler tagging out has a grace period to leave the ring before risking disqualification. The wrestler outside the ring must be touching the tag rope tied in the corner, tags are legal as long as the two team members touch. The referee has to see and/or hear the contact between the two wrestlers in order for the tag to be legal. As the ultimate authority over the match, a referee may overlook any of these at his discretion, in some multi-man tag matches in lucha libre, a wrestler can make himself the teams legal man simply by setting foot in the ring, and his partner then leaves. This allows for action to become nearly continuous, two referees, one stationed inside the ring and one on the floor, are employed to maintain order for this type of match

15.
World Championship Wrestling
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WCW Inc. was an American professional wrestling promotion, historically based in Atlanta, Georgia. Immediately after the buyout, the business was renamed the Universal Wrestling Corporation, WCW also developed a popular cruiserweight division. WCW eclipsed the WWF in popularity throughout the United States for much of the latter-1990s, however, numerous financial, Turner owned WCW until 2001, when selected assets were purchased by the WWF. Since 2001, WCW images and video footage have been distributed in WWE-owned media. Two separate subsidiary companies exist as successors to WCW, WCW, Inc. is the WWE subsidiary established in Delaware in late 2000, initially as W. Acquisition Company, which holds the rights to the WCW video library and other intellectual property. The former WCW entity, which retained liabilities not acquired by WWE, was renamed back to the Universal Wrestling Corporation, the name World Championship Wrestling was first used as a brand and television show title in 1982. Jim Barnett came to Atlanta in the 1970s during a struggle over Georgia Championship Wrestling. Barnett ultimately became majority owner of the promotion, and began using his previous name for his new promotions television program in 1982. The promotion was purchased by Jim Crockett Promotions. However, it was not until November 2,1988 that an actual, National Wrestling Alliance -affiliated promotion called World Championship Wrestling appeared on the national scene and this entity was under the ownership of media mogul and cable-TV pioneer Ted Turner, based in Atlanta, Georgia. WCW went through changes in business and creative leadership during its existence. Once Bischoff was relieved of his duties in 1999, Vince Russo, the two, however, did not get along well and Bischoff soon resigned from the sinking company. It was only a few months later that Russo would also depart after suffering from a concussion at the hands of Bill Goldberg, following Russos departure, the creative needs of the WCW were handled by a booking committee which included Johnny Ace and Terry Taylor. From 2000 to 2001, Monster Jam had a series of trucks based on wrestlers names. These include nWo, Sting, Nitro Machine, Madusa and Goldberg, the first to go was nWo, which only ran for a season. Next, all but Goldberg, Nitro, and Madusa were retired after the WCW sponsorship was lost, Nitro then became Flashfire, and then was converted into Inferno. Madusa has stayed the same since its creation, because it is driven by former WCW wrestler Debrah Miceli, as for Goldberg, it was changed to Team Meents in 2002, then into Maximum Destruction, which debuted in 2003 and continues to compete in the series. WCW also had a presence in NASCAR from the mid-1990s to 2000, sponsoring the #29 team in the Busch Grand National Series full-time and the #9 Melling Racing team in the Winston Cup Series part-time

16.
WWE brand extension
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The WWE brand extension is a kayfabe division of WWE into distinct branches. WWE has promoted its core business of wrestling through such brands. The first brand extension began in March 2002 and ended in August 2011, a third brand existed between 2006 and 2010 for their television show ECW, which was a revived version of the former promotion. The first brand split ended on the August 29,2011, episode of Raw, however, due to a great influx of talent from their developmental brand NXT, the brand extension was revived on July 19,2016, when SmackDown began broadcasting live on Tuesdays. Wrestlers are allocated to a brand via an annual draft, the sales had left WWF as the sole wrestling promotion in the world with international TV distribution. With the acquisition of new talent, the WWFs already large roster was doubled in size, the original plan was to relaunch WCW and for this new WCW to find a time slot on TNN for two hours on Saturday night. These plans were scrapped due to WCWs reputation of losing money. After failing to secure a timeslot, another method was for WCW to take over Raw or SmackDown and use the show to recreate its WCW counterparts. This experiment was first made on edition of July 2,2001, of Raw in Tacoma, Washington when the final 20 minutes was given to WCW, in which the Raw crew was largely replaced. With WWF focused on splitting its roster and plans for both WCW brand and timeslot scrapped, the Invasion storyline was used as a second resort, only the WWF Undisputed Champion and the WWF Womens Champion were exempt and could appear on both shows. The extension started on March 25,2002 with a draft on Raw, on June 13,2006, after a reunion PPV and video releases, WWE announced an addition to its prime time programming with ECW on Sci-Fi. The new ECW served as a brand, and a revival of the original ECW promotion. Both instances of the brand extensions required that representatives of each brand draft superstars onto each brand in a draft lottery, original full WWF owner Vince McMahon detested having to share his creation with Flair and sought to dissolve their partnership. Simultaneously, Flair was engaged in a feud with The Undertaker, however, the WWF Board of Directors would only allow the match if Flair returned full ownership back to McMahon. Flair agreed, but the Board stated that it would review the WWFs status, all WWF wrestlers were to be assigned to a brand based on random selections conducted through a mock–draft lottery. On the March 25,2002 episode of Raw, the WWF Draft was held, the 2002 WWF brand extension draft took place at Penn State University in State College, Pennsylvania on March 25,2002. The first half of the draft was televised live on TNN for two hours, as part of the WWFs flagship program, Raw, the second half was conducted over the Internet on WWFs official website, WWF. com. There were thirty draft picks, with sixty superstars drafted overall by co-owners of the WWF, onto their respective brands, Raw, the remaining superstars were divided randomly in a draft lottery, with each brand receiving a grand total of thirty superstars

17.
WWE Raw Tag Team Championship
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The WWE Raw Tag Team Championship is a professional wrestling world tag team championship created and promoted by the American professional wrestling promotion WWE on the Raw brand. It is one of two tag team championships for WWEs main roster, along with the SmackDown Tag Team Championship on the SmackDown brand. The current champions are The Hardy Boyz, who are in their first reign as a team, individually, the championship was originally established as the WWE Tag Team Championship on October 20,2002, and the team of Kurt Angle and Chris Benoit were the inaugural champions. It was introduced for the SmackDown brand as a title for tag teams in the promotion to complement WWEs original World Tag Team Championship. As a result of the 2016 draft, the championship exclusive to Raw with a subsequent rename. As a result, then-SmackDown General Manager Stephanie McMahon introduced the WWE Tag Team Championship and she stated that the inaugural champions would be determined from an eight-team tournament. On October 20,2002, the team of Kurt Angle and Chris Benoit defeated Rey Mysterio, on October 17,2007, SmackDown and ECW announced a talent sharing agreement that enabled talent from either brands roster to compete on both brands. As a result, the title became eligible to be contended and defended on both brands, the championships would be defended as the Unified WWE Tag Team Championship on any brand until August 2010. The WWE Tag Team Championship became the tag team championship in WWE and was defended on any brand. The first brand extension ended in August 2011, following the reintroduction of the brand extension in July 2016, then-champions The New Day were drafted to the Raw brand, making the championship exclusive to Raw. In response, SmackDown created the SmackDown Tag Team Championship on August 23,2016, the WWE Tag Team Championship was subsequently renamed to reflect its exclusivity to Raw. Following the events of the WWE brand extension, an annual WWE draft was established, after the WWE Tag Team Championship was unified with the World Tag Team Championship as the Unified WWE Tag Team Championship, the champions could appear and defend the titles on any WWE brand. The titles were combined as the WWE Tag Team Championship in August 2010 with a set of belts. The brand extension was discontinued on August 29,2011, the following is a list of dates indicating the transitions of the WWE Tag Team Championship between the Raw, SmackDown, and ECW brands. The inaugural champions were Kurt Angle and Chris Benoit, john Cena and The Mizs 9-minute reign is the shortest in the titles history, while The New Day have the longest single reign at 483 days, and the longest combined reign at 532 days. The Hardy Boyz are the current champions in their first reign as a team, individually, this is Jeffs first reign and Matts second. Raw Tag Team Championship title history, notes Specific Official Raw Tag Team Title History

18.
SmackDown (WWE brand)
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WWE SmackDown, also currently referred to as SmackDown Live or simply SmackDown, is a professional wrestling television program that debuted on August 26,1999. The shows name is used to refer to the SmackDown brand, in which WWE employees are assigned to work and perform on that program, currently the other brands are Raw. SmackDown is currently broadcast live on Tuesday nights on the USA Network, debuted in the United States on the UPN television network on April 29,1999, but after the merger of UPN and the WB, SmackDown. Began airing on The CW in September 2006, the show was moved to MyNetworkTV in October 2008, to Syfy on October 1,2010 and to USA Network on January 7,2016. It complements Raw as the second of WWEs two main weekly programs, for international broadcast listings, see below. The show celebrated its 15th anniversary on October 10,2014, the early set included an oval-shaped TitanTron entrance and stage which made it stand out from the Raw set with its rectangular Titantrons. Later productions gained the ability to move the Ovaltron either to the left or to the right of the stage, throughout the shows early existence, The Rock routinely called SmackDown. His show, in reference to the fact that the name was derived from one of his catchphrases, in August 2001, as part of celebrating SmackDown. s second anniversary, the show received a new logo and set. As a result of that incident, a new set debuted the week and it consisted of a fist centered above the entrance. In March 2002, WWE underwent the brand extension, a process in which WWE divided itself into two branches with separate rosters, storylines and authority figures, the two divisions, hosted by and named after Raw and SmackDown. The split resulted from WWE purchasing its two biggest competitors, World Championship Wrestling and Extreme Championship Wrestling, and the subsequent doubling of its roster, Michael Cole was joined in commentary by Tazz on April 4,2002 until June 9,2006. Cole and Tazz also appeared as the commentators on February 22,2001 through June 28,2001, wrestlers began to wrestle exclusively for their specific show. At the time, this excluded the WWE Undisputed Championship and Womens Championship, in August 2002, then WWE Undisputed Champion, Brock Lesnar, refused to defend the title on Raw, in effect causing his title to become exclusive to SmackDown. Following this, the Womens Championship soon became a Raw exclusive as well, as a result of the brand extension, an annual draft was instituted to exchange members of each roster and generally refresh the lineups. SmackDown was the brand for many top WWE stars including Eddie Guerrero, The Undertaker, Kurt Angle, Big Show. Guerrero would go on to become the WWE Champion as part of the show, thus becoming the feature of SmackDown throughout 2004. The biggest star of the decade, John Cena, started his WWE career on this show. He won his first WWE Championship during his tenure on the brand, on June 6,2005, then WWE Champion John Cena switched brands from SmackDown. to Raw as part of the month-long draft lottery

19.
Championship unification
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Championship unification is the act of combining two or more separate professional wrestling championships into a single title. In professional wrestling, championships may be unified to consolidate the number of championships in a promotion, or to add legitimacy. In a title-for-title match, one of four things will happen, a brand new championship is created. Both championships retain their identity and may be defended and lost individually, both championships remain active and are defended and lost together under one name, but title changes reflect each individual titles history. The first two prominent unifications of titles in the United States were done by Nikita Koloff, the Omaha version was abandoned after absorb with the AWA World Heavyweight Championship. The WCCW World Heavyweight Championship was quickly abandoned, and later the American Wrestling Association stripped the AWA World Heavyweight Championship from Jerry Lawler, the J-Crown, a combination of several lightweight championships from various wrestling promotions, was defended mostly in Japan and Mexico. The title has since abandoned and all championship belts returned to their home promotions. The WCW International World Heavyweight Championship was immediately abandoned, though the physical belt was used as the WCW World Heavyweight Championship as it originally had in 1991. The FTW title was abandoned when Taz continued to defend the ECW World title, the WCW Cruiserweight Championship was briefly unified with the WWF Light Heavyweight Championship on July 30,2001 when Light Heavyweight Champion X-Pac defeated Cruiserweight Champion Billy Kidman. The titles continued to be defended separately and X-Pac lost the Light Heavyweight Championship to Tajiri a week later, the United States title was abandoned, then revived as the WWEs United States Championship in 2003 by Stephanie McMahon as a SmackDown. -exclusive title. The Dudleys won the WWF Tag Team Championship, and their WCW Tag Team Championship was absorbed into the WWF titles, when WWF was renamed World Wrestling Entertainment, the title was renamed Undisputed WWE Championship, and finally WWE Undisputed Championship. After the brand extension, which split the WWE roster into two brands, the WWE Undisputed Championship served as the championship for both groups. The title again became disputed when champion Brock Lesnar announced he would defend the championship belt on SmackDown. The following week, Raw General Manager Eric Bischoff announced the creation of the World Heavyweight Championship, the WWE Undisputed Championship immediately became the WWE Championship. The European title was abandoned as a separate championship, the WWE Hardcore Championship was unified with the WWE Intercontinental Championship in August 2002, when Intercontinental Champion Rob Van Dam pinned Hardcore Champion Tommy Dreamer. The Hardcore Championship was abandoned soon after, the WWE Intercontinental Championship was unified with the World Heavyweight Championship at No Mercy when World Heavyweight Champion Triple H defeated Intercontinental Champion Kane. The Intercontinental Championship was immediately abandoned, then revived in May 2003 by Raw Co-General Manager Stone Cold Steve Austin, the titles are unified due to a working agreement between Total Nonstop Action Wrestling and New Japan Pro Wrestling in which Angle wrestles for TNA. On the August 16,2010 episode of Raw, the World Tag Team Championship was retired, the original WWE Womens Championship was unified with the WWE Divas Championship at the Night of Champions pay-per-view in September 2010

20.
Professional wrestling match types
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Many types of wrestling matches, sometimes called concept or gimmick matches in the jargon of the business, are performed in professional wrestling. Some of them occur relatively frequently, while others are developed so as to advance an angle, because of professional wrestlings long history over decades, many things have been recycled. These match types can be organized into several loose groups, the singles match is the most basic of all professional wrestling matches, which involves only two competitors competing for one fall. Victory is obtained by pinfall, submission, knockout, countout or disqualification, commentators and bookers generally explain it as saying the challenger must beat the champion. Playing into this, some storylines have heel champions protect their titles by losing in such ways. Time Limit matches were invented during the days of professional wrestling as a way to stop matches that went on for too long. A Battle of Respect is often held in tribute to another wrestler, on most occasions, one member of the team competes in the ring with one or more of his/her teammate standing behind the ropes. Wrestlers switch positions by tagging one another, usually similar to a five and, as a result. This can create tension during the match as a wrestler in the middle of the ring attempts to reach his/her teammate. In typical tag team matches, standard wrestling rules apply with an ending by pinfall, submission, countout. Promotions usually have established tag teams that most often compete in team matches rather than singles matches, though teams will often break up to pursue a singles career, teams often consist of real-life friends or relatives. On other occasions, teams are booked together by promoters based on their face or heel alignment in order to increase the amount of wrestlers on the card or to advance multiple storylines at once. Though common in Mexican lucha libre, at one point, World Championship Wrestling had a championship for teams of three, matches in which the entire team competes at once is often referred to as a tornado tag match, specifically in WWE. Matches can be held under standard rules or as a specialty match, such as a cage match or a ladder match. One famous example of this match is the Survivor Series match held in WWE at their annual Survivor Series pay-per-view, teams of four or five, though on some occasions as many as seven, compete under elimination rules. All other standard rules apply, and team members may tag in, while some teams are already established stables, others may need to recruit members for their team. In lucha libre promotions, a torneo cibernetico is a type of match between teams of up to eight wrestlers who enter in a predetermined order. A Winner Takes All match is a match where both wrestlers are champions going into the match, and the winner receives the championship of the loser and this is not the same as a championship unification match

21.
In Your House 3
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In Your House 3 was a professional wrestling pay-per-view event produced by the World Wrestling Federation, which took place on September 24,1995, at the Saginaw Civic Center in Saginaw, Michigan. The show was the third ever In Your House Pay-Per-View show produced by the WWF, the main event of the show featured all three active championships in the WWF at the time being defended. As part of the storyline the WWF replaced Owen Hart with The British Bulldog, the PPV portion of the show featured six matches in total and the WWF held four additional matches that were only seen by the people in the arena. With the launch of the WWE Network in 2014 the PPV section became available to subscribers to view on demand, the professional wrestling matches at In Your House 3 featured professional wrestlers performing as characters in scripted events pre-determined by the hosting promotion, World Wrestling Federation. Storylines between the characters played out on WWFs primary television programs, Monday Night Raw, if Diesel had been pinned, he would have lost the WWF World Heavyweight Championship and if Michaels had been pinned he would have lost the Intercontinental Championship. On the night of the show the WWF announced that The British Bulldog had to replace Owen Hart in the match, as Hart was with his wife at the hospital, as she was giving birth to their second child. Near the end of the match it was revealed that this was just a storyline as Owen Hart rushed to the ring in full wrestling gear and interfered in the match. At the same show it was revealed that Shawn Michaels was unable to compete after being in a fight with a number of Marines and he had to forfeit the WWF Intercontinental Championship to Dean Douglas. Yokozuna and Owen Hart were given the tag team championship belts back after In Your House 3, but lost them to The Smoking Gunns a short time later

22.
Fully Loaded: In Your House
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It was the twenty-third pay-per-view event of the In Your House series. The main event was a tag match for the WWF Tag Team Championship. Kane and Mankind defended the titles against The Undertaker and Stone Cold Steve Austin, Undertaker and Austin won the titles when Undertaker pinned Kane after performing a Tombstone Piledriver. O. D. 2000, Mark Henry versus Vader, Faarooq and Scorpio versus Terry Funk and Bradshaw, DLo Brown versus X-Pac, wrestlers portrayed a villain or a hero as they followed a series of events that built tension, and culminated in a wrestling match or series of matches. The main rivalry heading into the event was between Kane and Mankind and the WWF Champion Stone Cold Steve Austin and The Undertaker over the WWF Tag Team Championship, at King of the Ring, Undertaker defeated Mankind in a Hell in a Cell match. Later that night, Mankind interfered in Austin and Kanes First Blood match for the WWF Championship, Undertaker also came out and, ostensibly by accident, hit Austin with a chair, causing him to bleed. As a result, Kane won the title, on the June 29 episode of Raw is War, Austin challenged Kane to a rematch for the title, which Kane accepted. Later that night, Austin defeated Kane to win the WWF Championship, the following week, on Raw is War, the WWF Chairman Vince McMahon announced that Austin and Undertaker would team with each other to wrestle Kane and Mankind in a tag team match at Fully Loaded. On July 13, Kane and Mankind defeated New Age Outlaws to win the Tag Team Championship, making their match with Austin, two rivalries heading into the event were created together. One of them was between The Rock and Triple H over the WWF Intercontinental Championship, the other was between Ken Shamrock and Owen Hart. The 1997 King of the Ring Triple H challenged both men for a Triple Threat match and a match was made between the three King of the Ring winners, Shamrock won the match by pinning Triple H after interference by Rock. As a result, a brawl occurred between Triple Hs D-Generation X and Rocks Nation, on the July 6 episode of Raw is War, all the members of DX and comedian Jason Sensation mocked the members of Nation in an infamous parody. On the July 13 episode of Raw is War, Triple H and X-Pac defeated The Rock, during the match, it was announced that The Rock would defend the Intercontinental Championship against Triple H in a two out of three falls match at Fully Loaded. On the June 29 episode of Raw is War, L. O. D,2000 called out their famous manager Paul Ellering. 2000 by inviting his new tag team Disciples of Apocalypse,2000, leading to a match between the two teams at Fully Loaded. Also in Raw is War, on June 8 Nation of Domination enforcer Mark Henry faced Vader in a singles match and dominated him until The Undertaker attacked them both. Henry would attack Vader during his King of The Ring 1998 qualifying match against NOD member The Rock, Vader later would attack him again, costing Henry qualifying match against Ken Shamrock on June 22, thus leading to a match in Fully Loaded. The first match aired live on the event was a standard wrestling match between Val Venis and Jeff Jarrett

23.
Backlash (2001)
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Backlash was a professional wrestling pay-per-view event produced by the World Wrestling Federation promotion and presented by Castrol GTX. It took place on April 29,2001, at the Allstate Arena in Rosemont, Illinois, seven professional wrestling matches were scheduled on the events card. The stipulations were that if Austin and Triple H won, they would become the new tag team champions, if Undertaker and Kane won, the WWF and Intercontinental Championships would be awarded to them based on who scored the winning fall. The Power Trip won the match after Triple H hit Kane with a sledgehammer, thus gaining control of the tag team championship, Backlash 2001 is also the last WWE pay-per-view event to feature the WWF Intercontinental Championship in the main event. The event featured seven professional wrestling matches involved different wrestlers from pre-existing scripted feuds. Wrestlers were portrayed as villains or fan favorites as they followed a series of events which built tension. At WrestleMania X-Seven, Stone Cold Steve Austin took on The Rock for the WWF Championship. During the match, Vince McMahon interfered, which led to Austin attacking The Rock with a steel chair to win the WWF Championship. The next night on Raw is War, a rematch between the pair took place in a steel cage, Triple H interfered in the match, attacking The Rock and partnering up with Austin and McMahon. Briefly known as The McMahon Alliance, the pair began being referred to as The Two Man Power Trip, following WrestleMania, Austin assaulted his long-time friend Jim Ross after Ross criticized his alliance with Triple H and McMahon. Triple H then defeated Chris Jericho to win the Intercontinental Championship for a time in the main event. Shortly after this happened, the Brothers of Destruction began feuding with Austin, the brothers won the match, but were attacked by the Power Trip afterwards. With the two units now in control of all three major WWF titles, Austin and Triple H thought that meant that they would be facing Undertaker. However, on the next Raw, McMahon told them the situation was more complicated, since Linda was still the CEO of the company, this gave her power to veto her husbands decisions and force compromises. As such, McMahon informed Austin and Triple H that he had to make a compromise with his estranged wife and they agreed that the two champions would be able to compete at Backlash for the tag titles. If Austin would lose, whichever Brother of Destruction defeated him would receive the WWF Championship while Triple H would forfeit his Intercontinental Championship to the other, the reverse applied if Triple H was to lose. Before the event began, a match took place on Heat in which Crash Holly defended the WWF Light Heavyweight Championship against Jerry Lynn. Lynn pinned Holly with a Roll Up whilst holding Hollys tights to win the title, in another dark match, Lita faced Molly Holly

24.
History of WWE
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The history of WWE dates back to the early 1950s when it was founded by Jess McMahon and Toots Mondt in 1952 as Capitol Wrestling Corporation. It underwent numerous changes throughout the years, from World Wide Wrestling Federation to World Wrestling Federation to World Wrestling Entertainment. WWE is the largest professional wrestling company in the world and it has promoted some of the most successful wrestlers and storylines, and featured some of the most iconic and significant matches and moments in the history of the sport. In 2014, WWE launched the first ever 24/7 streaming network which would showcase the entire WWE video library. The National Wrestling Alliance recognized an undisputed NWA World Heavyweight Champion that went to different professional wrestling promotions in the NWA. The championship was defended around the world, the NWA generally promoted strong shooters as champions, to give their worked sport credibility and guard against double-crosses. While doing strong business in the Midwest, these attracted little interest in the Capitol Wrestling Corporation territory. In 1961, the NWA board decided instead to put the championship on bleach blond showman Nature Boy Buddy Rogers, the rest of the NWA was unhappy with Mondt because he rarely allowed Rogers to wrestle outside of the Northeast. Mondt and McMahon wanted Rogers to keep the NWA World Heavyweight Championship, in April 25 that year, Rogers was awarded the new WWWF World Heavyweight Championship, supposedly winning an apocryphal tournament in Rio de Janeiro. He lost the championship to Bruno Sammartino a month later on May 17,1963, to accommodate Rogers condition, the match was booked to last under a minute. Sammartino would retain the title for seven years, eight months and one day, although Sammartino was the face of the WWWF, wrestlers such as Superstar Billy Graham and Bob Backlund were also hugely popular. The WWWF gained notoriety in the 1970s by holding their biggest shows at Shea Stadium or Madison Square Garden and doing strong business across the entire Northeast megalopolis. They leveraged former, but still popular, wrestlers such as Captain Lou Albano, Grand Wizard of Wrestling Ernie Roth and Classy Freddie Blassie to act as managers for Sammartinos heel opponents. At this time, only babyface wrestlers were allowed to have long championship reigns, such as Bruno Sammartino, Pedro Morales and Bob Backlund, who all retained for more than one year each. Graham was the heel character to keep his championship for longer than one month. The WWWF was relatively conservative for promotions of its day, running its major arenas monthly rather than weekly or bi-weekly, Toots Mondt left the WWWF in the late sixties, and Vincent J. McMahon assumed complete control of the organization in 1971. Later that year, The Mongols created controversy after they left the WWWF with the WWWF International Tag Team Championship, the championship would be considered inactive as a result until Luke Graham and Tarzan Tyler won a tournament to claim the championship. They then defeated the Mongols in November 1971, voiding any claim The Mongols had to the championship, in March 1979, for marketing purposes, the World Wide Wrestling Federation was renamed the World Wrestling Federation

25.
WWE Championship
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The WWE Championship is a world heavyweight championship created and promoted by the American professional wrestling promotion WWE on the SmackDown brand. It is one of two titles in the WWE, alongside the WWE Universal Championship that was created for the Raw brand as a result of the 2016 WWE draft. The title is held by Randy Orton, who is in his ninth reign. The inaugural champion was Buddy Rogers, since its inception, the title has undergone many name changes due to company name changes and title unifications. From its inception until 2001, it was promoted as WWEs sole primary championship, an additional world title, the WCW Championship, was added after the then-World Wrestling Federations purchase of World Championship Wrestling in early 2001. The titles were unified as the Undisputed Championship. After the first brand extension in 2002 and the promotion becoming the WWE, the championship exclusive to SmackDown. ECW became a brand in 2006, adding the ECW World Heavyweight Championship. Over the course of the first brand extension, the WWE Championship switched between brands, usually as a result of the annual draft, the ECW Championship was deactivated in 2010, and the World Heavyweight Championship was unified with the WWE Championship in 2013. The championship was again the world title of WWE until the reintroduction of the brand extension in 2016. The title was introduced in 1963 with Buddy Rogers becoming the first champion, however, its origin is attributed to events that began in the National Wrestling Alliance, which had various territorial member promotions. In the 1950s, Capitol Wrestling Corporation was a member of the NWA and by 1963, during this time, Buddy Rogers held the NWA World Heavyweight Championship until January 24, when Lou Thesz defeated Rogers for the championship in a one fall match. After several years, the WWWF became affiliated with the NWA once again, although the full name appeared on the championship belts until 1998, the name was often abbreviated to WWF Championship, which became its official name in 1998. In 1991, World Championship Wrestling, a member of the NWA, in 1993, WCW seceded from the NWA and grew to become a rival promotion to the WWF. Both organizations grew into prominence and were eventually involved in a television ratings war. Near the end of the war, WCW began a financial decline. As a result of the purchase, the WWF acquired, among other assets, thus, there were two world titles in the WWF, the original WWF Championship and the WCW Championship, which was eventually renamed to the World Championship. In December 2001, the two championships were unified at Vengeance, at the event, Stone Cold Steve Austin defeated Kurt Angle to retain the WWF Championship, while Chris Jericho defeated The Rock for the World Championship

26.
Bruno Sammartino
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Bruno Leopoldo Francesco Sammartino is an Italian-born American retired professional wrestler, best known for his work with the World Wide Wrestling Federation, which is now known as WWE. There, he held the WWWF World Heavyweight Championship for over 11 years across two reigns, the first of which is the longest single reign in the history at 2,803 days. Dubbed The Living Legend, Sammartino is widely regarded as one of the greatest professional wrestlers of all time, Sammartinos wrestling style was more mat-oriented which was typical of wrestlers from his era. His brawling, power moves, and personal charisma helped him become the most popular American wrestler in the 1960s through the mid 1980s and he was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame on April 6,2013, by his longtime friend, Arnold Schwarzenegger. Born in Pizzoferrato, Abruzzo, Italy on October 6,1935, four older siblings died during his time in Italy. During his childhood, Sammartinos family hid from German soldiers in a mountain called Valla Rocca, during this time, Sammartinos mother, Emilia, would sneak into their German-occupied town for food and supplies. In 1950, he moved to the United States and settled in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, when Sammartino first came to the United States, he spoke no English and was sickly from his experiences of surviving during the war years. This made him a target for bullies in school. Sammartino wanted to build himself up physically and became devoted to weight training, Sammartinos devotion to weightlifting nearly resulted in a berth on the 1956 U. S. Olympic team. He was edged out by Paul Anderson – who outweighed Sammartino by 70 pounds, in the early years of Sammartinos career, he was measured at 510 and weighed around 280 pounds. Sammartino set a record in the bench press with a lift of 565 pounds in 1959. Sammartino completed this lift while not wearing any elbow or wrist wraps, when he brought the bar down, he did not bounce it off his chest, but set it there for two seconds before attempting the press. Sammartino also competed in bodybuilding and won Mr. Allegheny in the late 1950s and his high school, Schenley High School, did not have a wrestling program, but he worked out with the University of Pittsburgh wrestling team under storied coach Rex Peery. Sammartino became known for performing stunts in the Pittsburgh area. It was there that he was spotted by local wrestling promoter Rudy Miller, Miller knew that Sammartino could easily be marketed as an ethnic strongman, and that he would appeal to Italian immigrants who supported wrestling. Sammartino made his debut in Pittsburgh on December 17,1959. On December 23, he defeated Miguel Torres for the local Spectator Sports promotion in Pittsburgh and he soon became extremely popular, appearing frequently on the local TV wrestling program, Studio Wrestling. In 1966, Sammartino bought the Pittsburgh-based Spectator Sports promotion which promoted in the Tri-State area of Western Pennsylvania, Ohio, and West Virginia

27.
Toru Tanaka
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He was born in Honolulu, Hawaii, the son of Charles J. Kalani and Christina Leong Kalani. Charlie began studying judo at age nine, at Iolani School, he was a natural at many sports, and Doris Kalani credited his time on the football team with keeping him away from trouble. He was a kid getting into trouble and would have ended up in reform school if Father Kenneth A. Bray hadnt helped him out by bringing him to Iolani. He felt Iolani saved him, she told the Honolulu Star-Bulletin and he left Hawaii for Utahs Weber Junior College. On December 6,1951, the Associated Press reported he received honorable mention for playing football at the University of Utah and it was at the University of Utah that he also met his wife Doris in 1952. On December 3,1952 the Associated Press reported Kalani would become a professional boxer, drafted into the U. S. Army in 1955, Kalani rose to the rank of sergeant and excelled on the pistol team. For four years, the couple were stationed at a base in Nuremberg, after Kalanis discharge from the service in 1966, the couple moved to Monterey, California, where he ran a Judo and Danzan-ryu Jujitsu academy with Professor John Chow-Hoon. San Francisco promoter Roy Shire asked him to wrestle in 1967, Charlie was almost full-blooded Hawaiian, said Doris. In wrestling, Hawaii seemed not as exciting as Japan and he has four children - one who followed in his footsteps. Francis Maikai also known as Professor Toru Tanaka Jr. Cheryle Kalani, Carl Kalani, one of the characteristics of Kalanis wrestling gimmick was that he threw salt in his opponents eyes. Kalanis most famous tag team partner was Harry Fujiwara, whom he knew from school in Hawaii. In his book, Listen, You Pencil Neck Geeks, Freddie Blassie explored the relationship between the two Japanese heels, from Tanakas point of view, he was passing time with Fuji because it made sense to team up with another Japanese villain. The two certainly had no great admiration for one another, Tanaka was a by-the-book guy, who looked at wrestling as a means to make a living. He wanted to work his match, shake hands with everyone afterwards, if you wanted to talk about an angle beforehand, you always went to Tanaka. He was the general, whod lead everyone else in the match. Fuji was certainly a good performer, but you couldnt control him, so, in addition to worrying about their opponents, Tanaka had the responsibility of making sure that Fuji didnt get out of hand. I guess he did a pretty good job because, years later, Tanaka had a long successful run with the WWF in the 1960s, including being #1 contender to champion Bruno Sammartino. In their first Madison Square Garden meeting, Tanaka was disqualified for throwing salt, was pinned by Sammartino in a rematch 6 months later

28.
Tokyo
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Tokyo, officially Tokyo Metropolis, is the capital of Japan and one of its 47 prefectures. The Greater Tokyo Area is the most populous area in the world. It is the seat of the Emperor of Japan and the Japanese government, Tokyo is in the Kantō region on the southeastern side of the main island Honshu and includes the Izu Islands and Ogasawara Islands. Formerly known as Edo, it has been the de facto seat of government since 1603 when Shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu made the city his headquarters. It officially became the capital after Emperor Meiji moved his seat to the city from the old capital of Kyoto in 1868, Tokyo Metropolis was formed in 1943 from the merger of the former Tokyo Prefecture and the city of Tokyo. The Tokyo metropolitan government administers the 23 Special Wards of Tokyo, the metropolitan government also administers 39 municipalities in the western part of the prefecture and the two outlying island chains. The population of the wards is over 9 million people. The prefecture is part of the worlds most populous metropolitan area with upwards of 37.8 million people, the city hosts 51 of the Fortune Global 500 companies, the highest number of any city in the world. Tokyo ranked third in the International Financial Centres Development IndexEdit, the city is also home to various television networks such as Fuji TV, Tokyo MX, TV Tokyo, TV Asahi, Nippon Television, NHK and the Tokyo Broadcasting System. Tokyo ranked first in the Global Economic Power Index and fourth in the Global Cities Index. The city is considered a world city – as listed by the GaWCs 2008 inventory – and in 2014. In 2015, Tokyo was named the Most Liveable City in the world by the magazine Monocle, the Michelin Guide has awarded Tokyo by far the most Michelin stars of any city in the world. Tokyo ranked first in the world in the Safe Cities Index, the 2016 edition of QS Best Student Cities ranked Tokyo as the 3rd-best city in the world to be a university student. Tokyo hosted the 1964 Summer Olympics, the 1979 G-7 summit, the 1986 G-7 summit, and the 1993 G-7 summit, and will host the 2020 Summer Olympics, Tokyo was originally known as Edo, which means estuary. During the early Meiji period, the city was also called Tōkei, some surviving official English documents use the spelling Tokei. However, this pronunciation is now obsolete, the name Tokyo was first suggested in 1813 in the book Kondō Hisaku, written by Satō Nobuhiro. When Ōkubo Toshimichi proposed the renaming to the government during the Meiji Restoration, according to Oda Kanshi, Tokyo was originally a small fishing village named Edo, in what was formerly part of the old Musashi Province. Edo was first fortified by the Edo clan, in the twelfth century

29.
Smash (wrestler)
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Barry Allen Darsow is an American semi-retired professional wrestler who performs as Smash, one half of the tag team Demolition. He has also wrestled as Krusher Khruschev, Repo Man, The Blacktop Bully, throughout his career he worked for Jim Crockett Promotions, the World Wrestling Federation, World Championship Wrestling, and several regional promotions in the 1980s and 1990s. Darsow attended high school in Robbinsdale, Minnesota with six other wrestlers, Curt Hennig, Richard Rood, Brady Boone, Tom Zenk, John Nord. He also worked as a bouncer with The Road Warriors, Hawk, Darsow made his debut in Hawaii as Tsar Mongo, before a short stint in New Zealand. He changed his name to Krusher Khruschev and won the first ever Mid-South Television Title in a tournament by beating Terry Taylor in the finals on May 2,1984, Darsow moved on to Florida Championship Wrestling where he teamed with Jim Neidhart. They won the Florida United States Tag Team Titles on October 11,1984 from Hector Guerrero, the team held them until December 1984, when they lost them to Mark and Jay Youngblood. Krusher moved on to the National Wrestling Alliance to work for Jim Crockett and he was awarded a third of the NWA World Six-Man Tag Team Championship with Ivan Koloff and Nikita Koloff. The Koloffs had already won the NWA World Tag Team Championship and they feuded with The Rock n Roll Express and The Road Warriors. On July 9,1985, he and Ivan lost the NWA Tag Titles to the Rock N Roll Express, at Starrcade 1985, on November 28, Krusher won the vacant NWA Mid-Atlantic Heavyweight Championship by defeating Sam Houston. On January 11,1986, Krusher severely injured his knee in a match with Houston on TBS and he lost the title to Houston and had to take almost six months off to recover. When Krusher returned, Nikita was feuding with Magnum T. A. for the NWA United States Heavyweight Championship. On August 17,1986, Krusher helped Nikita win the title in the match of a Best of 7 series by holding the referee while Nikita used his Russian chain on Magnum. After helping Nikita defeat Magnum, Krusher and Ivan targeted the new NWA United States Tag Team Championship and they reached the finals, held on September 26,1986, and defeated the Kansas Jayhawks with Nikitas help to become the first US Tag Team Champions. Krusher and Ivan briefly feuded with Nikita and Rhodes but primarily defended their titles in rematches against Mantel, on December 9,1986, they lost the US Tag Titles to Ron Garvin and Barry Windham. Darsows contract eventually ran out and he left Jim Crockett Promotions, Darsow next went to the World Wrestling Federation. He was brought into the company to be part of the tag team Demolition, which had consisted of Bill Eadie as Ax and Randy Colley. At first, they were managed by Luscious Johnny V, and their initial feuds involved the team of Ken Patera and Billy Jack Haynes, and Strike Force. On March 27,1988 at WrestleMania IV, they defeated Strike Force to win their first WWF World tag team title and they later lost Mr. Fuji as he left to manage their newest rivals, The Powers of Pain

30.
Ax (wrestler)
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William Reid Bill Eadie is a professional wrestler who has competed under the names of Ax as part of Demolition and The Masked Superstar. He was a school teacher and coach at Cambridge High School in Cambridge, Ohio. Eadie started wrestling in 1973, making his debut in the Detroit territory of the Sheik and he wrestled under a mask as the tag team Para-Medics. He then wrestled in Pittsburgh, Detroit, WWWF, and the IWA as Bolo Mongol and it was stated that he was an Olympic champion by various wrestling promoters. He challenged opponents with a $10,000 reward to whoever could break his cobra clutch, the Masked Superstar was 63, weighed 300 lbs and created many mismatches due to his size, strength and quickness. He had many bouts with Mighty Igor, Paul Jones, Blackjack Mulligan, Wahoo McDaniel, Mr. Wrestling II, Stan Hansen and Wildfire Tommy Rich and he was the first wrestler to have one-hour cage matches, then have a series of 12 ninety-minute cage matches against Mulligan. It is believed that neither feat of hour or hour and a half cage matches has since been performed by any wrestlers and he was one of the first wrestlers to body slam André the Giant. Among other accomplishments, he won four Georgia Heavyweight titles and unified that title with the NWA National Heavyweight Championship and he also competed in the World Wrestling Federation against many top wrestlers in 1983-84. He fought against many top level opponents, including then WWF champion Bob Backlund, Hulk Hogan, in 1986, he returned to the World Wrestling Federation and became Super Machine with André the Giant as Giant Machine and Blackjack Mulligan as Big Machine. Eadie was the mouthpiece of the team. The three Machines were introduced as rivals of Bobby Heenan and his tag team of Big John Studd. Eadie later dropped the Machine gimmick and left the WWF to head to Florida for a run as the Masked Superstar and he held the title for two weeks before Luger regained it. In January 1987, Eadie returned to the WWF and formed the tag team Demolition with Randy Colley, formerly Moondog Rex, who wrestled as Smash while Eadie wrestled as Ax. Colley was later replaced by Barry Darsow as Smash, after it was discovered too many people remembered him as Moondog Rex. Though they began as heels, their unique brawling style and charisma made them so popular that they became faces in November 1988. They won the WWF Tag Team Championship three times as a team of two, but lost the belts at SummerSlam 1990 after they turned heel by forming a threesome with Crush. The trio concept was precipitated by a decision to phase out the Ax character. Popular rumor at the time cited heart problems on Eadies part, an allergic reaction to shellfish while in Japan after WrestleMania VI was the real cause of his temporary heart problem

31.
The Invasion (professional wrestling)
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The angle began when Mr. McMahons son, Shane McMahon, announced as part of the storyline on WWFs Raw Is War and the final episode of WCWs Nitro that he had bought WCW from under his fathers nose. This led to several appearances of WCW wrestlers during Raw Is War. Over the months after WrestleMania X-Seven, in June 2001, the angle grew in intensity as the WWF storylines somewhat abated to make room for the central Invasion storyline. WCW and ECW merged to form The Alliance and challenged the WWFs control over the wrestling industry, an Inaugural Brawl took place at the WWF Invasion pay-per-view, where Stone Cold Steve Austin defected and joined The Alliance. During the Monday Night Wars, the WWF and WCW, the two top North American wrestling promotions, competed for ratings, among other factors, however, mismanagement within WCW eventually led WCW to a downward spiral from which it never recovered. Mr. McMahon opened up Nitro and announced a simulcast later that night to address the future of WCW, throughout Raw Is War, McMahon publicly named several WCW wrestlers who would not be retained. After Sting defeated Ric Flair in WCWs final match, the simulcast began, McMahon talked about the buyout of WCW and toyed with the idea of making WCW into a huge media conglomerate, much like the WWF. He asked the crowd who he should keep under his belt by mentioning names of WCW wrestlers, lex Luger received a negative reaction from fans, and Hulk Hogan, Buff Bagwell, Booker T, Scott Steiner, Sting, and Goldberg received positive reactions. Vince then proceeded to fire them all, however, to the cheers of the Raw Is War crowd, McMahon then announced that he would sign the contract and make the purchase official at WrestleMania. The Invasion did not begin immediately afterwards, as the WWF was preparing for WrestleMania X-Seven, the years largest show, the WWF had effectively doubled the size of its roster through its acquisition of WCW, and as a result, there was not enough screen time for everyone. The original plan was to find a slot on TNN to continue running WCW as a separate entity. Polls were even put up on WWF. com and WCW. com to decide the name of the new show and these plans fell through when no TV station would touch WCW because of its reputation for losing money. As part of its plans, Lance Storm became the first WCW wrestler to appear on WWF programming, hugh Morrus made his WWF debut on the June episode of Raw Is War by attacking Edge. At King of the Ring on June 24, then-WCW wrestler Booker T interfered during the triple main event match for the WWF Championship. Additionally, Austin legitimately suffered fractured bones in his hand from the side slam he took from Booker into an announce table. The next night on Raw Is War, which was held in New York Citys Madison Square Garden, while Vince was in the ring, Booker T came from behind to deliver a scissor kick to Vince. The WWF roster ran to the ring to aid Vince, but Booker T and this incident marked the official start of the Invasion storyline, Raw Is War commentator Jim Ross announced, The battle lines have been drawn. This match did not go well at all with the audience in attendance at the Tacoma Dome

32.
The Alliance (professional wrestling)
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The Alliance, also known as Team WCW/ECW and The Coalition, was a professional wrestling stable in the World Wrestling Federation that lasted from July to November 2001. The stable came about as a result of the WWFs purchase of World Championship Wrestling in March 2001, the Extreme Championship Wrestling name was brought in later to help boost the presence of WCW after the original promotion closed in April 2001. The original plan was for the WWF-owned WCW to be a babyface group, during May and June 2001, wrestlers identified as being under contract to WCW invaded World Wrestling Federation programming, by making several run-ins. The ultimate goal, reportedly, was for WCW to take one of the WWFs two primary programs, either Raw Is War or SmackDown. and rebrand it as its own separate entity. Where Gregory Helms lost the WCW Cruiserweight Championship against Billy Kidman, the Booker/Bagwell title match, however, was very poorly received both by television viewers and the live crowd in the arena, with the two other WCW matches receiving a similar reaction. The decision was made to make WCW a heel group who was out to destroy the WWF. On the July 9 episode of Raw Is War, when then-face WCW owner Shane was scheduled to face Page in a street fight, the two instead attacked The Undertaker, turning Shane heel. Later that evening, Vince and Shane agreed to join forces to take out ECW once, when WCW and ECW faced off in the ring, however, they instead congratulated each other and attacked the WWF wrestlers. It was revealed that ECW had merged with WCW to form a supergroup to more effectively challenge the WWF, at WWF Invasion, Team WCW/ECW defeated Team WWF in a ten-man tag team match billed as the Inaugural Brawl. During the match, Austin turned on the WWF and joined The Alliance, helping them score the victory, over the next few months, the two sides fought back and forth. Except for a few wrestlers, every feud was a WWF wrestler versus an Alliance wrestler, ten combined WWF and WCW championships were defended among all the wrestlers in the various feuds. Over time, numerous WWF superstars would defect to the Alliance, including Test, William Regal, Ivory, former ECW and WCW wrestler Steven Richards would belatedly defect to the Alliance, bringing WCW alumni KroniK with him. In return, Chuck Palumbo and Torrie Wilson defected from The Alliance to the WWF, Kurt Angle also defected to the Alliance on the October 29 episode of Raw Is War. In late October, both agreed to end things once and for all. A Winner Take All classic Survivor Series elimination tag match was set for the Survivor Series pay-per-view. In the end, Team WWF defeated Team Alliance when Angle double-crossed The Alliance by turning on Austin while he was fighting The Rock during the stages of the match. The Rock then pinned Austin, thus putting The Alliance out of business, earlier in the night, The Dudley Boyz defeated The Hardy Boyz to unify the tag team championships while Edge defeated Test to win the Intercontinental Championship. Despite his loss, Test entered the Immunity Battle Royal later that night, with The Alliances loss, nearly all of their members lost their jobs following the match

33.
Survivor Series (2001)
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Survivor Series was the 15th annual Survivor Series pay-per-view professional wrestling event produced by the World Wrestling Federation and presented by Microsofts Xbox. It took place on November 18,2001, at the Greensboro Coliseum in Greensboro, the event marked the end of The Invasion angle, which had dominated WWF storylines since March when Vince McMahon purchased World Championship Wrestling. The event featured eight professional wrestling matches, the storyline eventually grew into a WWF vs. WCW faction battle, and eventually Extreme Championship Wrestling became a part of the battle by joining forces with WCW to create The Alliance. Vince began spreading rumors to the Alliance that there was a mole within their faction, before the Survivor Series, Steve Austin was the last man standing after both factions attacked each other in the ring. After that, Vince appeared on the ramp and shared a smile with Austin. Before the event began, a match took place on Heat in which Lance Storm, Justin Credible, and Raven defeated Albert, Scotty 2 Hotty. The event opened with Christian defending the WWF European Championship against Al Snow, Snow performed the Snow-Plow on Christian for a near-fall, after Snow chased Christian, Christian kicked the middle rope into Snow. Christian performed the Unprettier on Snow to retain the title, Regal performed a Regal Bomb on Tajiri to win the match. After that, WCW United States Champion Edge faced WWF Intercontinental Champion Test in a unification match. Test performed a Pumphandle Slam on Edge for a near-fall, Edge performed a Spear on Test for a near-fall. Test attempted a Full Nelson Slam on Edge but Edge countered the move into a Roll Up to win the match, later, WCW Tag Team Champions The Dudley Boyz faced WWF Tag Team Champions The Hardy Boyz in a Steel Cage match to unify the titles. Stacy Keibler stole the cage door key off a referee and passed Bubba, matt prevented a 3D and escaped the cage. Jeff attempted a Swanton Bomb off the top of the cage through the table on D-Von but D-Von avoided the move, D-Von pinned Jeff to win the match. Next was an Immunity Battle Royal, Test won the match by last eliminating Billy Gunn. After that, Trish Stratus, Lita, Jacqueline, Mighty Molly, Jazz, Trish performed the Stratusfaction on Ivory to win the title. In the main event, Team WWF faced The Alliance in a 5-on-5 Survivor Series elimination match, Big Show was eliminated by Shane after a Leap of Faith. Shane was eliminated by Jericho after a Lionsault, kane was eliminated by Van Dam after a Diving Thrust Kick. Undertaker was eliminated by Angle after Austin performed a Stone Cold Stunner on Undertaker, Booker was eliminated by Rock with a Roll Up

34.
WCW World Tag Team Championship
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The WCW World Tag Team Championship was a professional wrestling world tag team championship in World Championship Wrestling and later the World Wrestling Federation. It was the world tag team title of WCW and remained active until it was unified with the WWF Tag Team Championship. The WCW Tag Team Championship was originally known as the NWA World Tag Team Championship of Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling run by Jim Crockett Promotions, following the titles introduction in 1975, the Minnesota Wrecking Crew became the inaugural champions on January 29. The title was renamed the WCW World Tag Team Championship in 1991 when Ted Turner bought JCP, terry Gordy and Steve Williams won the tournament. As a result of Gordy and Williams being the WCW World Tag Team Champions when they became NWA World Tag Team Champions, both titles were defended together until WCW left the NWA in September 1993. On January 17,2008, the NWA withdrew its recognition of every WCW World Tag Team Champion linked to the NWA World Tag Team Championship, in March 2001, the World Wrestling Federation purchased WCW. Soon after, The Invasion took place in which the WCW/ECW Alliance was ultimately dismantled, during this time, the title was referred to as the WCW Tag Team Championship, with WWF wrestlers winning WCW titles, and WCW wrestlers winning WWF titles. At Survivor Series in November 2001, then WCW Tag Team Champions, The Dudley Boyz, defeated then WWF Tag Team Champions, The Hardy Boyz, to unify the WCW and WWF Tag Team Championships. The former was then retired and WWE officially recognizes The Dudley Boyz as the final WCW Tag Team Champions

35.
The Hardy Boyz
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The Hardy Boyz, often referred to simply as The Hardys, are a professional wrestling tag team, consisting of real-life brothers Jeff and Matt Hardy. They are the current tag team champions of six promotions, most notably being the reigning Raw Tag Team Champions in WWE and they both signed contracts with the World Wrestling Federation in 1998. In 2000, they were joined by Lita, and the trio became Team Xtreme, after splitting as a team in 2002, the brothers reunited in 2006 and teamed sporadically afterward. They also appeared in Total Nonstop Action Wrestling, briefly reuniting in 2011 as members of Immortal, the Hardy Boyz gained fame for their participation in ladder matches and Tables, Ladders, and Chairs matches with The Dudley Boyz/Team 3D and Edge and Christian. They are the team to have held the WWF/World, WCW, TNA, ROH. Both brothers also won championships during their run as a tag team. In 2017, they held seven Tag Team Championships from seven different promotions at the same time and they are the only tag team in history to be recognized as the TNA and ROH Tag Team Champions simultaneously. At WrestleMania 33, the Hardy Boyz made their return after 8 years to the WWE, winning the Raw Tag Team Championships in a fatal 4 way match. Real-life brothers Matt and Jeff Hardy formed a tag team in 1993 after Jeffs debut in the Trampoline Wrestling Federation, the promotion went by several names, and in 1997, it was modernized as the Organization of Modern Extreme Grappling Arts. The duo worked in several North Carolinian independent promotions holding the OMEGA Tag Team Championship, after being signed to a contract in 1998, they were trained by Dory Funk, Jr. in his Funkin Dojo. The Hardy Boyz started their run as a tag team with a win over Kaientai on the September 27,1998 episode of Sunday Night Heat. Soon after their Sunday Night Heat win, they built up a fan following through their high-flying tag team tactics. They started to become contenders for the Tag Team Championship after they became managed by Michael Hayes. They eventually dumped Hayes as their manager in August 1999, becoming villains, the fans also gave both teams a standing ovation the next night on Raw Is War. This began a two year rivalry between the Hardy Boyz and the team of Edge and Christian. During this time, they gained notoriety as a faction with Lita. With the addition of Lita, Matt and Jeff comprised the trio dubbed Team Xtreme, in 2000, they were involved in feuds with Edge and Christian and The Dudley Boyz in many ladder matches and TLC matches. They faced Edge and Christian and the Dudley Boyz at WrestleMania 2000 in a triple tag team ladder match

36.
The Un-Americans
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The Un-Americans were a professional wrestling stable in World Wrestling Entertainment who were active throughout mid-2002. The stable was originally composed of three anti-American Canadian wrestlers, Lance Storm, Christian and Test, towards the end of the Un-Americans existence, the trio was joined by British wrestler William Regal. The Un-Americans were formed on SmackDown in June 2002 by the Canadian Lance Storm, Storm claimed that World Wrestling Entertainment had discriminated against Canadians for years, citing the Montreal Screwjob as an example. Christian and Test, also Canadian, joined the burgeoning stable later that month, the stable was named The Anti-Americans shortly thereafter. In the lead-up to the formation of the group, each member had suffered a televised loss, Lance Storm lost a tag team match when he used a Bridging German Suplex to pin his opponent Billy Kidman. Storm inadvertently put his own shoulders on the mat, forcing the referee to count a pinfall on both men, Storm managed to raise his shoulder off the mat before Kidman did, but the referee did not see this, and awarded the victory to Kidmans team. In the following weeks, Christian and Test were pinned by their opponents in matches, as indicated by the name, the Anti-Americans differed from previous incarnations of Team Canada in that they were anti-American rather than pro-Canadian. As a result of this, the emblem of the stable was not the Canadian flag, in July, The Anti-Americans began feuding with characters such as Rob Van Dam, Rikishi, fellow Canadian Edge and Hollywood Hulk Hogan. In July 2002 Storm and Christian defeated Edge and Hogan to win the WWE Tag Team Championship and they were assisted by Chris Jericho, another Canadian, who both proposed the match to Mr. McMahon, and helped them win it after striking Edge with one of the belts. However, Jericho did not formally join the stable and had only helped due to a feud with Edge. Original plans, according to Storm, were to have the four Canadians form a group called C-4, in fact, Jericho had jumped to Raw on the same day as the stable, but still did not join them, though he is sometimes regarded as an associate. The Anti-Americans then jumped from SmackDown to Raw on July 29, up until this night, the World Tag Team Championship was only active on the SmackDown brand. But when Storm and Christian moved to Raw, the titles moved too and this is when Jim Ross started referring to the group as The Un-Americans. They went on to feud with Booker T and Goldust, who Storm, in the same night, The Undertaker defeated Test in a singles match. In late August and early September, The Un-Americans attempted on several occasions to burn the American flag, in mid September, the English William Regal joined the stable. At Unforgiven on September 22, The Un-Americans lost to Booker T, Goldust, Kane, Storm and Christian lost the Tag Team Championship on September 23 when they were defeated by Kane and The Hurricane. Following the match, both Storm and Christian blamed one another for the loss, one week later, Storm and Christian were both defeated in singles matches, and Test and Regal lost a tag team match. The series of losses divided The Un-Americans, and the split in brawling fashion

37.
Christian Cage
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Reso was trained by former professional wrestlers Ron Hutchison and Dory Funk Jr. and made his wrestling debut in June 1995. Reso wrestled in Canadian independent promotions early in his career, during his time in these promotions, he competed in singles and tag team competition with long time best friend Adam Copeland. In 1998, Reso signed a deal with the WWF and began competing for the company the following year as the storyline brother of Copelands WWF persona. After signing with the WWF, Reso made his debut and captured his first title with the company and he and Edge went on to win the WWF Tag Team Championship on seven different occasions. During this time, they gained notoriety in the tag division, partly due to their participation in Tables, Ladders. In 2001, the team parted ways, after which Reso held various heavyweight singles titles and he first challenged for the WWE Championship in 2005, which began his transition to a world title-level performer. In 2005, Reso signed with Total Nonstop Action Wrestling and revived his Christian Cage ring name, there, he won the NWA World Heavyweight Championship in February 2006. He recaptured the title in January 2007 and established Christians Coalition, Reso left TNA in late 2008 and re-signed with WWE. In April 2009, Reso won the ECW Championship, which he would hold again that July, Reso headlined multiple pay-per-view events between WWE and TNA. Reso won 26 total championships throughout his career, and is the twenty-third Triple Crown Champion, Reso was born on November 30,1973 in Kitchener, Ontario, the son of an American father and a Canadian mother. He played ice hockey and was a fan as a child. Reso lived in Huntsville and East Luther-Grand Valley, before moving to Orangeville, here, he met Adam Copeland, the two attended Orangeville District Secondary School together, from which Reso graduated. In September 1994, Reso enrolled in a school at Sullys Gym. One of Resos early ring names, Christian Cage, was a combination of the names of Christian Slater, Christians wrestling career began in June 1995 in a match against Zakk Wyld, which resulted in a draw. In 1997, he was a part of Thug Life, a stable that included Joe E. Legend, Zakk Wyld, Rhino Richards, as a tag team on the Canadian independent circuit, Copeland and Reso were known as High Impact and later The Suicide Blondes. The duo held titles in numerous promotions, and competed in the United States, Reso won the East Coast Wrestling Association Heavyweight Championship on July 18,1998, which he held until October 15,1999. When Copeland received a match with the World Wrestling Federation. They faced off in a tryout match, which Copeland was booked to win

38.
Lance Storm
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Lance Timothy Evers, known professionally by his ring name Lance Storm, is a Canadian professional wrestler. He is best known for his work in World Wrestling Entertainment, Extreme Championship Wrestling, after retiring from full-time wrestling, he began running a professional wrestling school, the Storm Wrestling Academy, in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Lance Storm was trained by Ed Langley and Brad Young of the Hart Brothers Wrestling Camp at the Silver Dollar Action Centre in Calgary, where he became friends with fellow student Chris Jericho. Jericho has stated that despite the name of the school, the only involvement any of the Hart brothers had in their training was a cameo by Keith Hart to collect the students fees. Lance would later debut against Jericho in 1990 as Lance T. Storm, early on, he mainly wrestled in Calgary but also spent time in Japan in Wrestling Association R. Along with Jericho, Storm debuted in Smoky Mountain Wrestling in 1994, after Jericho was injured, Storm continued to compete in singles competition for a few months, even winning the Beat the Champ TV Title. He then left SMW and moved on to a Winnipeg-based West Four Wrestling Alliance, in 1995, he began wrestling in Japan for WAR. He form championship teams with Yuji Yasuraoka, as well as forming a trio Nobutaka Araya and Koki Kitahara, in 1997, Storm joined Extreme Championship Wrestling. Following his feud with Candido, Storm formed a tag team with his trainee Justin Credible, at Guilty as Charged 1999, The Impact Players faced Tommy Dreamer and Shane Douglas in a losing effort, The stable joined Storm and his valet with Credible and his manager Jason. They first feuded with Jerry Lynn and Sabu in singles matches and by late 1999, they had begun a violent feud with Tommy Dreamer, the team brutalized many singles stars during this period as well. During this time, Storm also gained a position as a booker in ECW and had a hand in much of the content on television. At Hardcore Heaven 2000, Storm challenged his tag team partner Justin Credible for the ECW World Heavyweight Championship. After the company began to suffer financial hardships, Storm left ECW for World Championship Wrestling in order to support his family. Storm left ECW in 2000 to join WCW, where he became a singles wrestler. in rapid succession, resulting in Storm becoming the first and only wrestler in WCW history to hold three titles simultaneously. The match was refereed by the Canadian Jacques Rougeau, who enabled Storm to defeat Awesome, following the match, the semi-Canadian retired wrestler Bret Hart came to the ring and hugged Storm and Rougeau. At Fall Brawl 2000, Storm defeated General Rection (with Jim Duggan as the referee, with Duggan turning on M. I. A and he also attempted to win the World Heavyweight Championship, but was defeated by champion Booker T on each occasion. Storm eventually awarded the Cruiserweight/100 kg and Hardcore/S. H. I. T, titles by presenting them to his Team Canada stablemates Elix Skipper and Carl Ouellet, respectively. At SuperBrawl Revenge, Storm faced The Cat where he lost and The Cat became the new Commissioner of WCW. at WCWs final PPV Greed, Team Canada defeated Konnan and Hugh Morrus

39.
Stephanie McMahon
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Stephanie McMahon Levesque, also known professionally as Stephanie McMahon, is an American businesswoman, and Chief Brand Officer of WWE. She is currently the commissioner of WWEs weekly television show Raw. She is the great-granddaughter of Roderick Jess McMahon, granddaughter of Vincent J. McMahon began appearing regularly on-air for WWE in 1999 as a part of a storyline with The Undertaker. After a brief relationship with Test, she was engaged to Triple H—whom she married both on-screen and later in real life—which resulted in The McMahon-Helmsley Faction storyline. She has held the WWF Womens Championship once, in 2001, she was the on-screen owner of Extreme Championship Wrestling during The Invasion. The following year, she was the SmackDown General Manager, after only making sporadic appearances for several years, McMahon began appearing regularly on Raw in 2008 as the Raw brand general manager before disappearing once again. The Authority would later expand into a stable with its co-leaders Triple H, in April 2016, The Authority quietly disbanded. Stephanie Marie McMahon was born on September 24,1976 in Hartford, Connecticut to Linda and she has one brother, Shane McMahon. Soon after her birth, the moved to Greenwich, Connecticut. There, she attended the selective Greenwich Country Day School, throughout her school years. At the age of 13, McMahon appeared in World Wrestling Federation merchandise catalogs, after graduating from Greenwich High School, she attended Boston University and in 1998 earned a degree in Communications. After graduating in 1998, she working for the WWF full-time. McMahon entered WWF as a model and bodybuilder, for WWF Sales and merchandise, in her early years with the company, she did reception work, creative design, television production, and acted as a ring performer. After spending time as the director of creative writing, a job she had by 2002, McMahon was promoted to executive vice president of Creative in 2007. She was responsible for overseeing the process for all television. She oversaw all aspects of talent management and branding as well as live event booking and marketing, as Executive vice-president, Creative she was able to spearhead the upbringing of the WWE app, which has been downloaded over 20 million times. She was also able to launch a partnership with the USO metropolitan Washington, the social media company Tout. Stephanie also lead WWEs Creative coalition for their Anti Bullying Campaigns, in addition to her duties, she was responsible for the day-to-day operations for WWE. com

The Dudley Boyz (also known as Team 3D) were a professional wrestling tag team, consisting of kayfabe half-brothers …

D-Von and Bubba Ray making the 3D taunt (index finger and thumb forming the lower part of a 'd', the middle finger forming the upper part of the 'd' while also representing the number 3 along with the two remaining digits).

The Dudley Boyz briefly carried their tie-dye outfits from ECW into the WWF before dropping them for camouflage attire